he earnings of many top university presidents are spiraling up toward $1 million a year, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, rising far more quickly than faculty salaries.

Forty-two presidents of private universities were paid $500,000 or more in the 2003 fiscal year, the most recent for which figures are available, compared with 27 presidents the previous year. Just two earned half a million in 1994.

The highest-paid private university president, William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins University, earned $897,786 in university compensation, not counting at least $100,000 in annual pay for membership on several corporate boards. At least five other university presidents earned more than $800,000, including Judith Rodin, who has since left the presidency of the University of Pennsylvania, and Gordon Gee, the chancellor of Vanderbilt. They received the second- and third-highest compensation packages.

The presidents of public universities, too, are earning salaries that would have been inconceivable a few years back, although they remain lower than on private campuses. At public universities, 17 presidents earn more than $500,000, compared with 12 last year and 6 the year before that.

Mark A. Emmert of the University of Washington is the highest-paid public university president, earning $762,000 this academic year. Carl V. Patton of Georgia State, who receives $722,350, and Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan, who receives $677,500, rank second and third.

"These huge salaries feed into the ongoing corporatization of the academy," said Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, who earned about $120,000 a year when he was president of the State University of New York at New Paltz during the last decade. "Universities do not exist to make money but to educate our students and citizens, a role that is central to our democratic society. We send the wrong message when we transmogrify our campus presidents into C.E.O.'s."

The Chronicle based its listings of private university presidents on the most recently available university federal tax filings, for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. It collected its data on public university presidents by conducting telephone interviews with officials at 131 public research universities and colleges, said Julianne Basinger, who compiled this year's special section. The figures for public university presidents reflect their current compensation, she said.

The median compensation for presidents of private research universities rose to $459,643 in 2003 from $314,944 in 1999, or 46 percent, The Chronicle reported.

Several members of university boards said their presidents deserve the compensation because their responsibilities are increasingly complex, with oversight of thousands of employees, as well as vast research budgets and fund-raising campaigns. Dr. Brody of Johns Hopkins, who has a medical degree and a doctorate in engineering, manages Maryland's largest private work force, with 45,000 employees, and the largest research budget of any American university, more than $1 billion.

"He deserves his compensation," Raymond A. Mason, chairman of the Johns Hopkins board, said in a statement.

But the rising salaries of presidents appear to be opening a social and financial breach with professors. The average compensation for full professors at public and private universities last year was about $100,000, Dr. Bowen said.

The rising presidential salaries at public universities come as many legislatures have slashed their states' higher education budgets. Public four-year colleges raised tuition on average 14 percent last year and 10 percent this year, according to the College Board.

Still, trustees at public universities say that to attract talented leaders they must compete with the private universities. The University of Washington Board of Regents enticed Dr. Emmert to leave the chancellorship of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he was paid $590,000, by matching that figure and adding a $160,000 one-time incentive to move, Jeff Brotman, the chairman of Costco who is the president of the board of regents, said in an interview.

"We think we got tremendous value," Mr. Brotman said. "It's like going into Costco and you see a bottle of Dom Perignon for $90. That's a great value, but it's not cheap."

At many universities, the most highly compensated official is not the president. At Duke in the 2003 fiscal year, for instance, Nannerl O. Keohane, who was the president then, received $528,622 in total compensation, while Mike Krzyzewski, the basketball coach, received $853,099.

The highest-paid person in American academic life, according to The Chronicle, was Maurice Samuels, who received $35.1 million, including a bonus of $14.5 million for reaching investment goals, as senior vice president of the Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard University's $22.6 billion endowment. Lawrence H. Summers, the Harvard University president, received $529,397 in total compensation.

Two top educators at Boston University made the list of highest-paid presidents for the 2002-2003 year. Jon Westling, who left the Boston University presidency in July 2002, received $700,626 in total compensation. John R. Silber, the chancellor who had served as president from 1971 through 1996 and who assumed the duties but not the formal title of president when Dr. Westling stepped down, received $808,677 in total compensation during the same fiscal year.

A year later, in October 2003, Boston University paid $1.8 million to Daniel S. Goldin, a former NASA administrator, to walk away from his contract as university president the day before he was to assume the duties from Dr. Silber.

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This is one of my pet peeves. People that do little of anything for a school make 5 to 10 times as the teachers. Not just university presidents. Superintendents of local school districts here in PA make well over $100k a year for doing what? I feel that no teacher should make over $50k to $60k a year. (no offense to the teachers in the house) And i feel that superintendents and presidents damn sure shouldnt make anymore than about $40k. WTF do they even do?

Yet we have rising tuition costs for universities as well as public schools. Anyone know where the money goes? To these greedy fuckers.

thats your first problem...you need to find out exactly what these people do. my mother was on the school board of my high school (in PA, by the way) and so she became good friends with the Superindendent...who made at least that much.

he earned it...worked VERY hard for the school....they do a lot...at least the ones I have seen.

Just like CEOs...Presidents of Universities and Colleges only get paid the ridiculous salaries if they are bringing in the dough...through donors, contributors, business agreements, etc....if a president is making 800,000 you can bet your sweet bippy she is bringing the university some MAJOR moolah.

That being said...I still think that public universities paying that much money is disgusting...much like I think actors and sports figures get paid disgusting amounts of money for how little I feel they do...but again, its all about what you can bring in.

As a teacher...what do you have against us making high salaries...even with summers off the average teacher works more hours than the average businessman...

I feel that superintendents, CEOs, etc. should get paid according to their managerial work. That's right, these people actually do work. They have a huge responsibilty - to run the university, to manage the business, to tend to the school district. The success or failure of that institution lies squarely on that person's shoulders, and for that, I think that they deserve the salaries the business/district/university is willing to pay.

They should do an "Office Space"-type house cleaning. Ask these people what they do, and have them outline it as to how they improve the business of the schools.

If the schools tuition is going up, and these university presidents are making that much money, then maybe they should look into the stuff that is sponsored by the school. I know that the U of M here just paid a 'diversity consultant' (if there is such a thing) $25k to teach the administrators how to teach diversity training...so, as they say on Garage Logic AM1500, KSTP ...DONT TELL ME WE DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY!

thats your first problem...you need to find out exactly what these people do. my mother was on the school board of my high school (in PA, by the way) and so she became good friends with the Superindendent...who made at least that much.

he earned it...worked VERY hard for the school....they do a lot...at least the ones I have seen.

Just like CEOs...Presidents of Universities and Colleges only get paid the ridiculous salaries if they are bringing in the dough...through donors, contributors, business agreements, etc....if a president is making 800,000 you can bet your sweet bippy she is bringing the university some MAJOR moolah.

That being said...I still think that public universities paying that much money is disgusting...much like I think actors and sports figures get paid disgusting amounts of money for how little I feel they do...but again, its all about what you can bring in.

As a teacher...what do you have against us making high salaries...even with summers off the average teacher works more hours than the average businessman...

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Unless your increasing the knowledge base through books, databases, aquiring licenses etc for the sutdents use at a school or school district or increasing the functionality of a school by maintaining the premises regularly through needed allocation of funds to CORRECT areas of need, then what more do these people do? Ive run organizations before. ITs alot of glad handing, keeping nicey nicey between people that dont like each other and making sure you have the right people within the org. Its hard work but anything over $60k a year is ridiculous. Most of these presidents and superintendents DONT do said work. They raise their salary every year and then raise tuition costs to cover it. Nothing different from the Senator that votes for a tax raise every chance he gets or the CEO that decides to take a bigger chunk of the pie for himself without producing more output.

They have nice cushy jobs and that they really cant be removed from except upon cases of EXTREME incompetence and they still want more money. To me if your making $150k or more a year, you need to be bringing in at least 80% of that to the particular organization you run.

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